Ulster singing star Eoghan Quigg’s dream of X Factor glory is still alive after he charmed his way into the next round.

The Dungiven teenager last night made his way through the tough Bootcamp round where a total of 50 acts were cut down to 24.

He will now go on to the next stage of The X Factor competition.

Eoghan is one of six acts in the boys 14-24 year-old category being mentored by Simon Cowell. The next stage of the competition will see the 16-year-old sing for Cowell at his mansion in Barbados where it will be decided which boys make it through to the live finals.

On the show last night as he anxiously waited to hear his fate, Eoghan said that while there is nothing wrong with going to school and then getting a job, he wants to do something more.

Although the schoolboy impressed the judges, Cowell cast some doubt earlier in the programme over whether he would be selected to progress into the next round of the competition. Cowell raised concern about his young age saying he believed he could be even better in a year’s time. “I think he is really good. My problem though is he is 16. Maybe another year?” he said.

The next round of the competition will be extremely tough and Cowell was not happy when he heard he was to take charge of the boys as he had wanted to mentor the girls.

“I’m thrilled for them more than me,” he said.

Eoghan has been one of the judges’ favourites from the very start of the competition. In the earlier stages of the show Girls Aloud star Cheryl was particularly taken with his rendition of Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven.

“I think you’re so cute. You have a really great range. Your performance was fantastic.”

The notoriously hard-to-please Cowell described Eoghan’s voice as “terrific” while Dannii Minogue labelled him “adorable” and Louis Walsh praised him for his “star quality”.

Eoghan’s fan base is already beginning to grow with over 3,000 people signed up to an unofficial on-line fan site. Over 150,000 internet users also logged on to watch his first X Factor performance on YouTube.

On Saturday night Northern Ireland’s other X Factor hopeful Conor McCullough had his dream dashed when he was knocked out of the competition.

The classically trained tenor and former boyband member from Belfast did not make it through to last night’s cut.